Calendar

February 2014 – March 2015

Conservation Lecture Series

Join us in the evening to learn more about species conservation efforts in the field! Free conservation talks are held at the zoo every 2nd Wednesday of the month, Nov.-March, at 7 p.m. (exception: February lecture is on the 19th). These talks are free and open to the public. Enter through the main zoo gates.

2014 Conservation Lecture Calendar

February 19: – Species recovery in the Pacific Northwest – an opportunity for zoos and aquariums. (David Sheperdson, Oregon Zoo)

March 12: -When the Fuel Hits the Feathers: Oiled Wildlife Rescue in California and on the North Coast. (Tamar Danufsky, HSU Museum and Oiled Wildlife Care Network)

Celebrate everything RedPanda – for FREE!

Enjoy a free day of fun at Sequoia Park Zoo, thanks to the generous sponsorship of the Times-Standard, while celebrating International Red Panda Day! There will be Red panda-themed activities around every corner, and the opportunity to catch up on our Red panda family – Stella Luna, Sumo, and their two babies – as well as all the other exciting new happenings at the zoo.

Additionally, there will be keeper talks, opportunities to watch the Red pandas create some of their unique paw-print paintings, and the chance to enter a raffle and win great prizes! All the proceeds from raffle ticket sales and face painting donations will go directly to the Red Panda Network to support Red Panda conservation in the wild.

“Farmers and Fish: Restoration of the Salt River Ecosystem” by M. Doreen Hansen, Humboldt County Resource Conservation District

Near the town of Ferndale, dairy farmers have joined with a host of public and private partners to restore fish habitat and function to the Salt River. Over 100 years ago, the Salt River provided spawning and rearing conditions for thousands of salmonids and was large enough to support a small steam ship industry

In 2013, the Salt River Ecosystem Restoration Project started work on the first phase of an historic effort to restore the watershed. Two miles of river channel near the Eel River Estuary were enhanced and 300 acres of dairy pasture converted back into a functioning tidal marsh system. Within six months of the restoration, federally endangered Coho juveniles and Tidewater Goby were found throughout the site, along with Chinook and other marine species. In 2014 another 1.5 miles of river channel and associated riparian flood plain is being restored toward the ultimate goal of restoring 5 miles of channel.between Ferndale and San Francisco. The river channel slowly filled with sediment that now blocks fish passage to 15 miles of tributary habitat and causes dairy pastures to flood.

As the project progresses, project partners will be monitoring the evolution of the site and report on their findings. This talk will specifically address the results of the first year’s fish monitoring effort in the restored tidal marsh.

The waters off the Hawaiian islands are home to a half-million brightly-colored tropical fish that are scooped up into nets each year and flown across the globe into home aquaria. Although scientific studies have shown that the aquarium fishery off the Big Island of Hawaii is among the best managed in the world, it has nevertheless become the focus of intense conflict, and activists have launched a campaign to shut down the selling of fish for aquariums, saying the practice is destroying coral reefs.

This talk will describe 20 years of research conducted by Dr. Brian Tissot, focused on promoting the conservation of live-caught aquarium fish along the Kona coast of Hawaii, using community-based management within a network of Marine Protected Areas. His collaborative conservation program involves multiple agencies, including state resource agencies, university faculty and students, large and small NGOs, and a variety of local community groups. He has studied the reefs and the fisheries to achieve a balance between community interests, the coral reef dive tourism industry, and a sustainable aquarium fishery.

“Rat Poisons and their Impacts on Wildlife: what we know, don’t know, and alternatives” by Dr. Mourad Gabriel, Ph.D, Integral Ecology Research Center, Ecologist & Director

Pesticides are used extensively within urban and agricultural settings with the goal of reducing damage to human and domestic animal food supplies or the spread of disease. However, non-target species including sensitive wildlife have unfortunately been exposed or poisoned through legal and illegal uses of these toxicants. One type of pesticide, rodenticide, has contributed to world-wide exposure and poisonings of numerous non-target wildlife species. Locally, in Humboldt County, the misuse of rodenticides has been associated with trespass marijuana cultivation on forested public and tribal community lands. These habitats are home to several species of conservation concern, and the use of toxicants have both individual and population level effects on many of these wildlife species. In addition, due to the inherent purpose of these compounds, the affected prey populations within these sites are thus influencing the fitness of species dependent on them.

This lecture will focus on the current data that has been collected by Dr. Gabriel on wildlife exposures and deaths attributed to these toxicants in Humboldt County. It will also discuss the difficulties of collecting the effects of these toxicants, as well as alternatives that people could incorporate at home and within legal use settings that are not as toxic.

The fisher, known to science as Pekania pennanti, is considered one of the most adept and elusive carnivores in our western forests; capable of regularly preying on well-fortified porcupines and rarely spotted by even the most regular of forest visitors. Despite their tenacity and elusive nature, these house-cat-sized weasels were unable to elude the pressures of unregulated trapping for furs and the loss of forested habitats associated with logging over the last century. It is suspected that logging continues to threaten fisher populations by means of habitat fragmentation, reductions in habitat size, and changes in forest structure rendering it unsuitable for fishers. As a result of population declines, range contractions, and existing threats, the fisher is a candidate for federal endangered species protection.

Join conservation scientist Dr. Sean Matthews as he shares his decade of research and conservation experience on fishers throughout California, Oregon, and Washington. Through photographs and videos, Sean will share stories of fisher biology, conservation concerns, research and conservation efforts, and what it takes to raise an orphaned fisher kit, from rescue to release.